A rich woman’s town

New York City is no place for the faint of pocket. I have been noticing how my theatre-going and jazz-lounging has been curtailed over the past few months (I can be quite slow on the uptake sometimes) due to the pressing financial imperatives of rent and food.

This is not the city to simply get up, go to work, come home and watch TV. There are so many exciting and stimulating things to do in this city. But they all take lots of money. It’s $20 just to walk into a museum these days, and $40 at a minimum for a seat at even an off-off-Broadway show. Don’t forget to add the tax, either.

But I am trying to write my book and earn my rent at the same time, so my socialising has been curtailed somewhat. It’s frustrating – who doesn’t want to see and do everything this city has to offer? – but it seems to me today that those “trustafarian” Ivy League graduates really do have all the fun … simply because they can afford to. I feel so bourgeois to be so conscious of not enjoying dinners out and jazz clubs and the theatre. But I’m here, in New York City, for gods’ sake!

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I know what you mean about wanting to ‘see and do everything’ whilst in New York. I have only been there twice, on whistle-stop tours of the states, and I tried to cram as much in as I could. And it IS so expensive! I found that you can see some of the most interesting (and bizarre!) things just walking around the city that never sleeps…

Although I didn’t want to do too much of the outright ‘touristy’ things, I did find that a trip to the Visitors Centre in Times Square was worthwhile. They had free tickets to a talk show (Queen Latifah was the host) and while walking home from her studio, I got pulled off the street to sit in the audience for the Ricki Lake show! Now that was a kulcha, rather than ‘cultural’ experience that I never expected to have. It was a hoot!

More about Virgina

I’m an Australian literary agent, editor, freelance writer, and the author of The Young Widow’s Book of Home Improvement, a memoir, and Girls at the Piano (forthcoming in 2018). I lived for many years in Brooklyn, New York, but am for the time being living back in Sydney with my family.

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I no longer agent manuscripts in the manner of a traditional literary agent. The best places to begin your search for an agent are (in Australia) the Australian Literary Agents' Association and (in the United States), Agent Query.
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